I was unsuccessful at breasfeeding for several reasons. The biggest reason is I did not educate myself first. I thought I would just have my son, put him up to my breast, and he would just know how to nurse. I only nursed/pumped for the first few weeks. He is 5 months old now. Is there any way to get my milk to come back in? I work full time, so pumping every couple of hours would be next to impossible because of my line of work (police officer).

April 10th, 2013, 06:59 PM

@llli*mommal

Re: Can I get my supply back? It has been 5 months.

Welcome to the forum! Getting your milk back is possible. Milk supply is created by demand, so the more frequently you demand milk from the breast by nursing or pumping, the more milk you will make. This works even if you have completely dried up.

If baby won't nurse, or even if he will but isn't that great at it, you'll want to use a good double electric pump (preferably a hospital grade rental) with correctly sized shields in order to bring your milk back in. Ideally, you'd pump about as often as a newborn baby would nurse, which means 10-12 times a day. But if your job precludes that level of pumping, you just cram as many pump sessions as possible into your day and see what happens.

Other things that can help are supply-boosting herbs (fenugreek, blessed thistle, oatmeal), and as a last resort, prescription dugs (Reglan and Domperidone). But neither herbs nor drugs help as much as frequent stimulation via baby or pump!

Resurrecting your milk supply is not something that happens in a hurry. So if you take the relactation road, you need to be patient and persistent, and perhaps to think about what your goal is. For some moms, nothing less than getting back to producing 100% of their baby's diet will do. For others, producing half a bottle per day is enough. There's no right or wrong here when it comes to defining success!

April 11th, 2013, 07:28 AM

@llli*kscarlett143

Re: Can I get my supply back? It has been 5 months.

Thank you so much! I'd like to have realistic expectations. 100% is probably unrealistic, though definitely desired. Again, thank you!

April 11th, 2013, 10:54 AM

@llli*mommal

Re: Can I get my supply back? It has been 5 months.

100% may or may not be unrealistic, depending on your pumping schedule and your baby's willingness to nurse. But it is possible! Let us know how it goes, if you decide to pursue it.

April 11th, 2013, 12:50 PM

@llli*kscarlett143

Re: Can I get my supply back? It has been 5 months.

I will. Thank you for the suggestions/references!

June 11th, 2013, 02:48 PM

@llli*kscarlett143

Re: Can I get my supply back? It has been 5 months.

Well, I decided to pursue this and I'm having some success. It's slow, but I'm optimistic. I took domperidone, and goat's rue for 3 weeks, then added fenugreek, blessed thistle, moringa, and mother's love more milk and began pumping 9 days ago. I don't get much at all right now. I save it and give it to him at the end of the day. It's not really even enough to replace any amount of formula yet, so I just give it to him straight from the sorage cuontainer. I hope that even a tiny bit is beneficial right now. I hope to produce enough to actually replace some formula soon.